Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1 - 3

by Jamie Davis

  “See or sense anything, Marian?”

  The pink-haired teen drew in a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes for a moment as if considering the scents she was taking in. Her eyes opened, and she pointed to the right, across the room. “There,” she said, the excitement coloring her voice. “I smell vampire and human over there.”

  Dean entered the room and shined his light in the direction indicated by his teen colleague. He could almost see the far wall. There was an extensive bank of windows there. Then a bit of movement at the edge of the light caught his eye.

  “Hello, I’m a paramedic. Did you call us? We are here to help,” Dean calls into the darkness.

  At first, there was silence; then a voice called from the shadows. “Over here, they are over here. Please help.”

  It was a woman’s voice, and Dean motioned to the others to follow him as he moved in the direction of the voice. Soon his flashlight beam fell on a trio of figures. Two were lying on a mattress, and one was standing next to it. It was a woman, scrubbing her hands together in frustration.

  “Please help us,” she called as the paramedic and his team approached. “I think they overdosed.”

  Dean continued closer and started assessing the scene in front of him. There is an old, tattered mattress on the floor with a man and woman lying on it. They both looked homeless, their clothes a mismatch of items and layers. They both looked pale and apparently unconscious.

  “I’m a paramedic,” Dean said again as he approached. He held up his hand showing the new tattoo. The woman glanced at his hand and then looked back at him. She gave him a relieved smile, and he caught a hint of her elongated, sharp canines.

  “I told him not to drink so long, but he didn’t listen, now he’s taken too much and won’t answer me. She has just stopped breathing, too.”

  “What did they take?” Dean asked. He knelt down next to the pair on the mattress. He motioned to Gibbie and the vampire responder started unpacking the wires of the heart monitor and getting out the blood pressure cuff.

  “She likes heroin, so Bryce got her a hit in exchange for letting him feed on her while she was shooting up. It’s been fine every other time. This time, though, we got the stuff from a new supplier. It must have been too strong because they both went out almost immediately. It scared me, so I called a friend, and they called you guys.”

  Dean looked at her. “What’s your name?”

  “Mya.”

  “Okay, Mya,” Dean said, using a calm and soothing voice. “We are going to do the best we can to help Bryce and your other friend. Do you know her name?”

  “We just call her Red,” Mya said. “I don’t know her real name.”

  Dean looked back to his patients. He knew what to do for opiate overdoses, but was unsure how to assess the effects in a vampire who didn’t breathe at all, unless it was to talk. The opiates suppressed the respiratory system and depressed the central nervous system. They also caused pinpoint pupils of the eyes.

  The girl was breathing way too slowly; he could see that. Her ragged, snoring breaths were not regular. He leaned forward and shined his light in her eyes and then in Bryce’s. The pupils didn’t change. They remained tiny points of black in the irises. Dean decided to treat her first, then the vampire.

  “Marian,” Dean said. “Get out the naloxone, two syringes, two needles, and two nasal atomizers from the med bag.” The naloxone was the drug that would counteract, temporarily, the effects of the heroin. Marian started digging in the medication bag and handing the requested items to Dean.

  Dean drew up a dose of the drug in each syringe and then attached the small silicone rubber cone-shaped atomizers to them in place of the needles. Leaning over his patients, starting with Red, he used a syringe on each and sprayed the atomized drug with half a dose in each nostril. The medication would be absorbed in the nasal mucosa and into the bloodstream. He waited for the drug to take effect. It would have been a faster effect with an IV injection, but that would have taken too much time to get started. She was an IV drug user so her veins would be crappy and hard to access. Vampires had little, if any blood flow, so they were hard to get an IV line in as well.

  Bryce started to come around first. His hand moved to brush against his face, then he sat up suddenly, leaned over and vomited blood onto the floor next to him. Dean knew that was the effect of the sudden withdrawal from the heroin. The naloxone worked by suddenly blocking the drug’s access to the body’s opiate receptors. Bryce also started shaking with tremors, but he was wide awake as he looked around the darkened room at the figures hovering over him. Dean showed his tattoo to the newly recovered patient and the recovering vampire saw and nodded. Mya rushed to his side and hugged him.

  Red was slower to recover, but her breathing soon became easier, more even and deeper. Her eyes fluttered open a minute or so later. Dean had Gibbie get a set of vital signs on her while the paramedic went and attached the heart monitor leads to check her heart. She looked up at him as he did it.

  “Red,” Dean said. “I’m Dean. I’m a paramedic, and I’m here to help you. Do you remember what happened?”

  “I think so,” she said looking around. “Did I pass out?”

  “Yes. I think the heroin you were using was stronger than you expected or you overestimated the dose,” Dean explained. “I’ve given you a drug to counteract it, but it’s only temporary. You will need more medical attention.”

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Red said, a frantic tone coloring her voice. “Can’t you stay with me here and watch me?”

  Ordinarily, Dean would have said no. When he was working on the Station U ambulance, the protocol was to transport and put the unit back in service to take care of the next person. What was the protocol here? He guessed he’d have to make it up as he went along. He had plenty of the drug to give until the heroin wore off for both of them. He and Gibbie and Marian were safe right now, so that was not an issue. Dean looked around at his team and then back at his patients. He’d never get them to go to the hospital, and he didn’t have an ambulance to take them in any way. He would have to stay and continue to monitor them, giving additional doses of naloxone as needed.

  “Okay, Red,” Dean said. “I’ll stay for a little while with you and Bryce until you are clear of danger. Maybe we can talk about you and what drew you to start using heroin in the first place. I want to give you some IV fluids, too. You’ve lost some blood during this situation.” Dean looked at Bryce, who gave a grim, tight-lipped smile. He looked back at the human girl, and she nodded.

  “You aren’t going to call the police, right?” she asked.

  “No, that’s not my job unless you do something to hurt me or my companions. As long as we are safe, we will stay, and there will be no police,” Dean soothed his patient’s concerns. “Now let me get that IV started. You’ll feel better with some fluids.”

  Red nodded and lay back on the mattress while Dean got started with the IV preparations. Her veins were going to be crappy, but he’d find something. Gibbie started assembling the IV fluid bag and tubing, handing the flashlight to Marian. Dean’s time training some extra skills in his CERT class was paying off. His team knew how to assist him, and it smoothed the process of care. He was able to get fluids started for his human patient. Then he turned back to Bryce.

  “How do you feel?” Dean asked.

  “Better now,” Bryce replied. He looked at the vomited blood on the floor next to him. “I guess I got that out of my system.”

  “At least for now,” Mya snorted. “When are you going to stop using, Bryce. Feeding on junkies just to get high? It’s disgusting, and it almost killed you.”

  Dean stayed silent. He wasn’t an addiction counselor, and he had never considered something like this before with an Unusual patient. Addiction was a huge problem for all communities, though there was little he could do to control it other than just respond and treat the addicts. Sometimes a paramedic could encourage someone to seek some pro
fessional help, but that was all. Dean turned his attention back to what he could control since he couldn’t stop the addiction itself. He and his CERT team started taking vital signs and monitoring both patients, wary of the need for the eventual follow-up dose of the drug that could save their lives.

  Chapter 65

  It was nearly dawn when Gibbie drove him back into the garage at the Nightwing building. They had dropped Marian off at her home hours before, at around midnight. She had school the next day, and they wanted to make sure she paid attention to her grades, as well as her desire to be a paramedic someday. Dean did leave her with some praise for her work that night, along with a warning to keep her grades up if she wanted to keep coming on the emergency response calls with them.

  Gibbie pulled his white van to a halt near the elevators and slid the gear lever into park. He looked at Dean with an exhausted glance. Dean knew he looked tired, too.

  “Good night, boss,” Gibbie said as he smiled at Dean. “It was a good night, wasn’t it?”

  “I think we were successful,” Dean said. “We saved a few lives, and we were able to let people know that we were out there to help them. I still wished they would call the real 911, but for now, this will have to do.” He climbed out of the beat up van and then opened the back to grab the med bag. “I’ll get Ashley to grab us replacements for what we used tonight, Gibbie. Will you please make sure to plug in the heart monitor batteries, so they are recharged for this evening?”

  “Got it, charge the batteries,” Gibbie said with a thumbs-up. “You get some sleep. I’ll see you after dark tonight.”

  Dean shut the door, stepped back and waved once as Gibbie pulled away and out of the garage. He was exhausted. The first call had been stressful enough, going into that abandoned building. The other three calls they ran over the course of the night had been more routine for EMS calls. An elderly weretiger woman had an asthma attack and had run out of her medications. Dean had administered a breathing treatment for her and then called in to Ashley to see if social services could arrange to have her meds delivered the next day. Then there was an injury sustained by a new vampire who thought he could just jump from a roof and fly away in bat form. Luckily he had fallen into some bushes below that helped break his fall. There was a broken leg that Gibbie helped him set and splint. That would be healed by morning, but it had needed to be attended to before it would heal properly. Gibbie explained to the newbie that his powers would take a few years to develop fully and to take it easy.

  The final call of the evening was a young fairy family in the Barrens mobile home park with a baby who had had a febrile seizure. This was a type of seizure brought on by a sudden fever. It was rarely life threatening to the child, but Dean knew it was scary as hell for the parents who witnessed it. Dean stayed on scene for a while, counseling the parents after giving the baby a dose of liquid acetaminophen. He advised them to get some acetaminophen to help keep the fever down until she was better. He also urged them to see about getting a pediatrician. He would get Ashley to refer one who was Unusual friendly. The seizure was unlikely to happen again, but if it did, he recommended they drive over to the ER and get the baby checked out. The mother hugged him as they packed up to go, thanking him for being available to help them. He knew she meant that he was able to help without bringing the risk of additional human attacks. He told her to let her friends and neighbors know he and the CERT team were available for a while, and that they were working on fixing the whole system to get them safe 911 services again. Thinking back about the night, Dean thought that overall it had been an exciting first evening with the new team. Plus it just felt good to be out on the street helping people again.

  Dean pushed the button for the elevator and was waiting for it to arrive when a black sedan with tinted windows pulled into the garage and parked in one of the VIP slots nearby. Dean watched it stop and then Artur climbed from the driver’s seat. He gave Dean a half grin and helped two young ladies from the back seat and walked over to the elevator. Dean wondered if he should warn them what they were in for, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Now was not the time to challenge the ancient vampire. The elevator doors opened, and Dean stepped inside and held the doors for the other three. He pushed the button for their common floor and waited quietly as the doors closed.

  “What’s that you’re holding, Dean,” Artur asked. “Missing your time on the streets and carrying an ambulance bag around with you?” The sneering sarcasm in his tone infuriated the paramedic.

  “If you must know, I was out all night providing patient care on my own so that people can still get the help they need.” Dean shut his mouth as soon as he said it, but it was too late to take back what he had said. He saw the vampire's dark eyes narrow as he looked down at the battered and used medical bag.

  “Well, well, well,” Artur said. “I suppose people couldn’t have expected to keep you on the sidelines for long, provided that was what they were trying to do. You should be careful, Dean. I’m sure your opponents have nothing personal against you, but if you insist on pushing forward with rash and irresponsible actions, things could get … uncomfortable.”

  “I’m a paramedic,” Dean said. “Uncomfortable is what we train for.” The elevator doors opened, and he gestured for the trio to step off first. Artur nodded and led the girls from the elevator.

  “Don’t say no one warned you, young man,” Artur sneered. “I’d stay and deal with your rashness myself, right now. But, as you can see, I’m famished and must get to my dinner before bed. Don’t worry, though. I know how to clean up my own messes now. Ta ta.”

  Dean stared at them in anger and almost missed his chance to get off the elevator behind them as the doors started to close on him. He interrupted the sensor with a wave of his hand and reopened the doors, stepping out into the hallway. The trio had already turned the corner at the end of the corridor and was out of sight. Dean walked down to his apartment and decided to place a call to James’ assistant Celeste to warn her about the two girls with Artur. He was pretty sure the vampire would abide by at least some of the rules of hospitality. He would probably not do anything overt to expose James, like leaving two dead bodies to be found near the building. Probably. Still, it was a good idea to warn her just in case. He shut his apartment door as he placed the call upstairs before going to bed to get some sleep.

  ———

  He woke as Ashley placed a kiss on his cheek. He rolled over in bed and looked at the clock on the nightstand while hooking an arm around his girlfriend to pull her close. It was five o’clock in the evening already, and she was in her scrubs to go back to work in the ER for another night shift. He looked up at her, the green-eyed beauty staring back at him. She leaned back in for another kiss.

  “I thought I’d stop over and wake you up, sleepyhead,” Ashley said between kisses.

  “Why don’t you stay a bit and help me fully wake up?” Dean proposed.

  Ashley laughed and pushed him away, rolling out of bed. “None of that,” she said wagging a finger at him. “I have to get to work. I just wanted to get you up for the night’s activities. I got your text about the medication replacements. I’ll get the script for them, and you can swing by the ER later. I’ll meet you in the parking lot with them since you can’t come in. How’d it go last night anyway?”

  Dean sat up and pulled on a t-shirt and shorts. “I think this will work out pretty well, Ash. Gibbie is pretty good as an assistant, once you get past his more unusual quirks and flamboyant reactions to everything. Marian has the makings of a pretty good EMS provider, too, if she decides to stick with it after high school.”

  “That’s good,” She said. She kept talking as she went into the living room. “I’ve wasn’t sure after you went out last night. I expected an immediate shift in my premonitions that would indicate we were on the right track. It didn’t happen until this morning just after dawn. I was at work, and suddenly I sensed a change in the possibilities of the future. It all seems to have realigned
. Did you do something this morning at the end of the shift with Gibbie?”

  Dean shook his head. “We had our last call at about four AM. We just drove around for the rest of the night and Gibbie dropped me off. I got back here around dawn.” Then Dean thought for a moment. “Unless …”

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless it had something to do with my running into Artur this morning on my way up in the elevator. I thought I had screwed something up, and let the cat out of the bag when I lost my temper with him.” Dean explained about the interchange between him and Artur in the elevator and beyond.

  “You shouldn’t have tried to push his buttons, Dean,” Ashley said. “He is dangerous, old school and vindictive. If James or I aren’t with you, he could just end you without so much as a shrug, even with my residual protections in place.” Her concern showed in her facial expression, worry lines crinkling her forehead.

  “I guess I figured that the rules of hospitality applied here in James’ building,” Dean said. “I thought maybe he couldn’t hurt me while I was here. I was just so pissed off that he was flaunting the two girls at me when I knew what he had done before.”

  “Well, whatever you did and why you did it is beside the point now,” she said. “That encounter with Artur changed something in the chain of events here. It has reset the course for us, at least partly, in our favor. You just need to be extra careful out on the street at night. Now that he knows about what you are doing, there are going to be situations that might not be what they seem on the surface. There will be opportunities to get at you. I’ll do what I can to protect you from afar, but you need to pay attention to what you’re doing and what’s going on around you. Okay?”